Wednesday 27 Nov 2013

Wednesday Reading: Matthew 25:31-46

Key Verse: Matthew 25:40
And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

Devotion:
When Jesus was telling the people about the last judgement He wanted to make sure that all of us could understand the consequences of our actions. There are those people who look at themselves and say that Christ could never exclude them from heaven because they have always been good and have always done what they thought was the right thing. But when each of us looks back on our lives there is going to be at least one time when we did something wrong…

I am not talking about picking up a big lump of wood and hitting someone over the head or any other drastic actions like that. I am talking about something like eating that last biscuit even though you knew that someone else would really have liked that biscuit. I am talking about the times when we do not go and visit someone just because we are a bit tired or lazy. Those times when the other person would not know that we have ignored them because we did not say anything in the first place… These are the times that Jesus was bringing up for discussion here.

We all do have our moments when we do something for ourselves rather than doing something for someone else. We all do have times when we think that our life should be more important than the person standing next to us or that person has not cared for themselves like we have… It is a very difficult line to draw; should we help or should we not? Do I stop or do I walk on by? Should I help or is it going to end up hurting?

God is the one who does know the right answers because He is God! Christ is the one who is going to judge us according to those perfect rules and not according to the rules we have come up with to comfort ourselves. God is holy and that means He cannot and will not accept breaking the rules… It is only because of what Christ has done for us on the cross that we are able to be declared not guilty. Thank you Jesus for what You have done for me! Guide me toward doing what You want in my life and not the things that I would prefer to do!

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are good?

Does Christ know you personally?